Fighting climate change has slipped down the agenda in Wales and politicians should stop trying to choose between the economy and cutting emissions, a major independent report has warned.

Fighting climate change has slipped down the agenda in Wales and politicians should stop trying to choose between the economy and cutting emissions, a major independent report has warned.

A report by the Climate Change Commission for Wales says that, while Wales has made strides in tackling emissions, “significant challenges” remain, including slashing emissions from transport.

It also urges the Welsh Government develops a strategy for mitigating the impact of climate change, including improving flood defences, warning reductions of areas of green space in towns and cities could have “potentially adverse implications” for surface water flooding in coming decades.

The Commission said that the predicted 4-6°C global rise in temperatures predicted for the next 100 years would provoke “significant disruption to life in Wales and the natural resources we rely on”, and urged politicians to make the country ready for a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy.

Green groups last year labelled Wales’ progress of reducing emissions “nothing short of alarming” and “disastrous” when it emerged that Wales had seen an 8% total increase between 2009-2010, the largest increase in the UK.

The Welsh Government said at the time that the increase was down to a particularly cold winter.

The report found that emissions did increase in 2010, but were likely to have fallen in 2011, due mainly to weather and economic factors, and said that “good progress implementing emission reduction measures had continued, particularly in the residential and waste sectors.

Peter Davies, chairman of the Climate Change Commission for Wales, said: “The Climate Change Commission members agree unanimously a choice between the economy and the environment is not the way forward.

“We are clear that the solution to both the financial and environmental problems is a transition to a low-carbon economy. The economic transition needs to be rapid and Wales needs to be ready for the competitive and collaborative nature of these changes.”

The Commission identified six priority areas to remove obstacles to delivering the climate change agenda in Wales, including “building resilience” to manage the impact of climate change, reducing emissions from the built environment, addressing problems with transport and engaging civil society.

Mr Davies said: “Everybody needs to play a part in adapting Wales to climate change. The Government needs to continue investing in flood defences, while the public for example need to make lifestyle changes, and organisations need to develop their own management plans based around vulnerabilities.”

The report found several recommendations from its first annual report last year had seen limited progress, and described the e?orts to engage communities and sectors on behaviour change as “limited and

ad-hoc”.

Alun James, policy officer at WWF Cymru, said the report Wales had to play its part in tackling the threat posed by the “alarming prospect” of temperature rises raised in the report.

But he said that progress towards ambitions 40% emissions reductions targets by 2020 were “simply too slow” and that Wales had serious ground to make up in the last seven years.

He said: “This will involve joint action by the Welsh and UK Governments since there are many decisions around energy that are not devolved.

“The switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy is a crucial area for action, so we would urge the Commission to add decarbonisation of power generation to its priority areas of work. This too will need Cardiff and Westminster to work together.

“We want to see Wales become a truly sustainable nation, so we welcome the Commission’s focus on the need for a transition to a green economy.”

Environment Minister John Griffiths, who will speak at the launch event today, said: “Our Sustainable Development Bill will provide the framework to ensure the public sector in Wales makes the best choices for our long term future.

“Reducing emissions and adapting to the causes and consequences of climate change are a key element of this and are fundamentally linked to our future resilience.

"It is not just about us doing more, it’s about improving as a public sector how we do what we do.”

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